We’re barely a couple weeks in and a sour taste forms in my mouth each time So You Think You Can Dance lights up my cathode ray tube.

It started with last Tuesday’s premiere. By the end of the hour, it seemed as if the show was handing out Las Vegas tickets to the contestants like they were candy. The next night? Wednesday night? More of the same. Those Vegas tickets were flowing just as fast as a winning one-armed bandit pull.

Then came this week’s 2-hour episode. Good gordness: Tickets were flying hand over fist. The judges were beside themselves, thrusting them in the grasp of any willing outstretched hand. That’s the way it felt, anyway.

An inordinate amount of trips to Sammy’s Town have been distributed in the initial three nights of season 10. But … could it be the train wrecks and hopefuls showcasing substandard abilities have been minimized on the broadcast, thus the appearance of more advancements than usual? That’s probably it.

There. I answered my own question. See? That wasn’t so hard. Right?

Wrong.

It’s not that easy. On a show like this, things don’t simply fall into place quite so conveniently.

Here’s the rub: The dancers of substance have been paraded before us in spades so far. The nut jobs and the delusionals and the mediocre have been scaled back, probably to the end of the audition segment. (More power to The Powers That Be for doing so.) But … let’s not jump out of our seats and give them a hearty round of applause quite so quickly.

I’ve noticed a common theme regarding those who have been given a Vegas pass: A good chunk of them don’t seem to be “all that” … they don’t have enough *umph*. Oh sure, there have been a number who, without doubt, deserve to advance. But a good portion of them? Let’s just say my jaw has dropped more than a few times at the judges’ picks. And especially in their failures to shoot a good third of those over to the choreography portion of the show to test their mettle. There’s a nice juicy contingent who should have gone that route rather than directly to Boardwalk, if you catch my drift.

On top of that, I’m even surprised at some of the contestants who have made it having gone through choreography.

Cases in point?  Emilio “Millie” Dasal for starters. Sure, it’s impressive Phillip Chbeeb (brilliant in his own way) has taken him under his wing, but Millie’s initial audition simply wasn’t that great to begin with. He must have impressed the judges a heck of a lot more than we were witness to during choreography, because the small amount I saw of him partnered up didn’t light any fires.

Another? Hayley Erbert. Her self-proclaimed “sexiness” not only failed to come across as promised (was I just expecting more from her proclamation?) but she hasn’t seemed to have “made her bones” in the dance game quite yet. There was nothing spectacular about her performance. She had nice lines, but I was looking for something dazzling/eye-catching/attention-grabbing in her stint. And it simply wasn’t there. The judges gave her a free ride gratuitously, jumping the gun in doing so.

Maybe Millie and Hayley (and several others) will put in enough blood, sweat and tears to change my mind. Last season, Cyrus “Glitch” Spencer certainly earned my respect in rising to the occasion, fighting all along the way to warrant advancement week after week. But the difference there was Cyrus wowed us right from the get go. And, regardless of his wow factor, he had to earn a spot after choreography. Some of this season’s advancers? They don’t have anywhere near the goods Cyrus displayed in his freshman appearance. And as he went along we knew we were going to see some terrific stuff from him … and we were on the edge of our seats during the performances where he was way outside his element.

The likes of Millie and Hayley? I don’t see them advancing beyond Vegas, certainly not into the upper tiers of the competition.

If they prove me wrong, I’ll be happy to eat crow. Publicly.

On a lighter note, I already have a favorite guy in the competition: Donovan Gibbs. And it’s not because of the backstory SYTYCD gave us about his family choosing their dance studio over a home because his parents believed whole-heartedly in their craft. It’s because Donovan Gibbs showcased a talent that went above and beyond what an audition called for. I saw him reach deep during his audition, I saw him give 110% effort and he offered us a bevy of different moves and styles to appreciate. His audition was head over heels compared to some of the others who made it through.

Donovan deserved the ticket mania that’s run rampant on SYTYCD. I can’t say the same for a lot of others.

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